Category: Science

Kim Jong Il reportedly often inject himself with the blood of virgin teens to slow down the aging process.

The younger human blood has long been believed to be a drug life. One of the people who know to believe it was the late North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. He reportedly often inject himself with the blood of virgin teens, to slow down the aging process.

But apparently the belief was not entirely wrong. Saul Villeda, a researcher from Stanford University, U.S., found that the blood of young people have such youthful drug effects.

Villeda arrived at the conclusion after holding experiments involving mice. He mentranfusi blood of young mice to old mice 18 months. Transfusion process was carried out eight times a month. The results found that the connections in the brains of old mice increased to 20 percent after a blood transfusion done.

“One of the main things that changed in the process of aging is these connections. Much decreases as we age. If your connection is reduced, the neurons are no longer communicating, and suddenly you’re having problems in learning and memory,” said Villeda who presented research at the Society for Neuroscience conference in New Orleans, USA, on Wednesday (10/17).

According to the importance of this research could help people suffering from diseases such as Alzheimer’s related memory.

“While we still have the body control to prevent the disease, then we are not required to treat Alazheimer, we may just have to stop it,” said Villeda.

However, Villeda not the first study on this theme. In 2010, researchers from Harvard have blood circulation system connecting young and old rats, so their blood mingled. The result is a process that turned out to rejuvenate the blood-producing stem cells in old mice.

An average of 377 of every 1000 people who live to age 15 years will die before reaching the age of 60 years

Man who live in the tropics tend to die sooner, 7.7 years younger than other humans different hemisphere, according to a study initiated by the James Cook University (JCU) in Australia.

In a report titled “State of the Tropics” which was released on Monday (11/19) it was shown that people who live in the tropics, in 2010, had an average life expectancy of just over 64.4 years.

While in humans living in non-tropical areas of life expectancy on average reached 72.1 years, says the study involving 13 institutions and held in 12 countries.

In general, mortality in tropical regions caused by disease, conflict, poverty, and food insecurity. Investment of social services such as health and education, access to water, sanitation and medical technology are also an important factor leading to the low life expectancy.

According to the report Central and Southern Africa is the region with the rate of adult mortality are highest. In that region, the average 377 of every 1000 people who live to age 15 will die before reaching the age of 60 years.

In other tropical regions, an average of 240 from 1000 adults will die before reaching 60 years. In nontropical countries only 154 of 1000 adults who die before reaching 60 years.

In 2050 about half the world’s population will live in tropical regions that included Australia, Southeast Asia and South America, Africa, the Middle East, Central and South America, and the Caribbean and Oceania.

According to Sandra Harding of JCU’s tropical regions are evolving into a critical region in the world and is home to 40 percent of the world’s population and accounted for 20 percent of the world economy.

The report also found that life expectancy in the tropics has increased in the last 60 years. People in the tropics now living 22.8 years longer than in 1950.

Southeast Asia is a region with a life expectancy rate in 2010 reached as high as 60 years, rising by 26.7 years, higher than the average age is only 20.2 percent globally in the same period.

Institutions included in the study came from Kenya, Ecuador, England, Thailand, Singapore, Costa Rica, Denmark, United States, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Brazil.

Rotation with the sun at a distance equal to the Earth’s rotation on the solar system.

An expert team of Anglo-German astronomers have discovered a new planet orbiting a nearby sun in the same distance as the Earth orbits the sun so that it has a climate that can support life.

The team actually discovered three new planets orbiting stars within 44 light-years, but only one of them had so-called Goldilocks zone, surrounding a sun belt where the temperature is not too hot and not too cold for liquid to exist.

“The star HD 40307 is a star that is quite perfect parents, so there is no reason why a planet can not have a climate like the earth,” says Guillem Angla-Escude from the University of Goettingen, Germany, who led the research with Mikko Tuomi at the University of Hertfordshire in England.

The planet has a mass at least seven times that of Earth, but orbit has the same distance from the sun as Earth’s distance to the sun, this means the planet has the same amount of energy as an acceptable earth.

More than 800 planets have been discovered outside our solar system since it was first detected in the early 1990s, but only few of them have all habitable zone.

Even more rare planets rotating in the zone, as happened on this planet, to create conditions at night and during the day, which adds to the likelihood of having an environment like Earth. A non-rotating planet will have a dark side constantly.

“The planet is most like Earth than the habitable zone,” said astronomer Hugh Jones of the University of Hertfordshire.

This planet, called HD 40307g, is part of a system previously thought to have only three planets, all are in orbits too close to its star to be able to support the presence of liquids.

Astronomers are getting this discovery, reveals in a research article in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics, by examining data from HARPS spectrograph, attached to the telescope at the European Southern Observatory in La Silla, the Atacama desert in Chile.

Equipment HARPS is able to take even the slightest change in the color of light emitted from a host star when the star is moving under the gravitational influence of planets berorbit.

The team also used a novel technique to filter the signal generated host star itself. “This significantly increases our sensitivity and enable us to reveal three planets around the star,” says Mikko Tuomi.

Jakarta – Plastic may be a major culprit in the garbage problem in some countries. However, Japan had already found a solution for reducing plastic waste. A Non-Government Organization (NGO) from Japan named Ecoparty come to Indonesia to introduce technology that can turn plastic into diesel fuel.

As many as 60% of all types of plastic can be recycled using the technology offered Ecoparty. For example, food wrappers, bottles, spoons, forks, and clothing made of plastic. Solar high quality can be produced from the recycling of plastic type polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), and polystyrene (PS).

This technology is able to convert 1 kilogram (kg) of waste plastic into 1 liter (L) diesel, which could then be converted into electricity by 11.6 kWh. “With the small machine, can produce as much as 200 L of diesel per day,” said President Director Ito Akinori Blest. Meanwhile, there are at least 131,521,000 tons of plastic waste in the world that can be converted into 1,525,651,525,120 kWh of electricity.

“The research says that the rubbish that flows into the sea had reached Australia. Rubbish has been to small molecules that then eaten fish in the sea. Ends, eaten by humans. The result can change our DNA as well as bad for health, “said Masanori Uwai Ecoparty Executive Committee.

“The electricity that we use in this room comes from waste plastics,” says Akinori when interviewed on stand Ecoparty, JIEXPO, Kemayoran, Jakarta, on Friday (3/1). “Popcorn in the corner is also made with electricity from waste plastic,” added Akinori.

The key to this technology is the temperature. Heating with high temperature (around 400 degrees Celsius) can turn plastic waste into diesel fuel, destroyed. “This machine is also safe because it does not use fire, but electricity. Other than that, this is a very small machine so easily transported anywhere, “said Ito. Recycling 1 kg of plastic requires about 3.4 Watts of electricity (including the process of heating the engine) with a maximum of 1 hour. “Waste produced very little. Waste generated from the dye attached to the plastic. Generally, 100% turned into diesel fuel, “said Akinori.

Focus on Education World

Initially, Ecoparty is an environmental education program in Kindergarten Shinmatsudo, Chiba prefecture, Japan in 2003. Then, in 2006, Ecoparty develop their activity to Nepal by sending stationery to schools.

Ecoparty then the fact a lot of plastic waste in the rivers of Nepal. Waste is then drain and pollute the ocean. Inspired, Ecoparty started to develop eco-friendly technologies. “For 12 years we learn this technology. It was not until 5 years later we refine this technology, “said Akinori.

Campaign plastic waste matter was intensively carried out in 2010. By using a car caravan “Oil Field School” which contains a machine converting plastic waste into diesel, Ecoparty around visiting schools and shows how the utilization of plastic waste.

By using electricity generated from the solar, Ecoparty then make popcorn. The kids just gave plastic waste she had. In addition, children can also easily operate the machine. “Our main goal is to educate children that plastic waste can be a source of energy. That way, they will not throw litter, “said Masanori.

Philosophy Whale

Pictures of whales in Ecoparty logo has meaning. History notes that, initially, came from whale oil. “The Pope just like humans, are sensitive to the environment. There is a kind of whale that likes to sing, to be able to call a friend who was at a distance of 3000 kilometers. It is their form of communication, “said Masanori.

“Humans have a major role in the pollution of the sea and has implications also for whales. So it is not wrong, if we want at Java Jazz next year there is a song for the pope, “he added. He also said that Ecoparty deliberately chose to open the show stand at Java Jazz (1-3 March 2013) because they want to engage with music.

Already in use in 28 countries

A total of 28 countries are already using the technology of Ecoparty. Among the countries: USA, Slovakia, the Netherlands, Germany, Thailand, Tanzania, Iceland, Alaska, and the Philippines. “We hear of plastic waste into one of the major causes of flooding in Indonesia and the Philippines. We offer this technology to the government who really want to focus on reducing plastic waste, “said Akinori.

Akinori sure if the government also said Indonesia would support this program, the Japanese government also must be willing to help. “I hope one wants to run the program Ecoparty in Indonesia,” he added.

Researchers at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Switzerland has detected a rare decay of a particle that could undermine the theory of super-symmetry, one of the main theories in physics.

Super-symmetry, or SUSY is a theory used to explain a number of inconsistencies in the theory of the Standard Model, the traditional theory of subatomic physics the most widely recognized by scientists in the world.

The results of recent observations reported in the Hadron Collider Physics conference in Kyoto, Japan, held since 12 November, shows the difference with most SUSY models are believed to physicists.

Professor Chris Parkes, one of the conference participants who came from England to the BBC explained that “Super-symmetry may not be dead, but the latest results have obviously been put in the hospital.”

SUSY theories claiming the existence of super-particles or larger versions of the particles that have previously been found in nature or that have been known to man.

The presence of these particles could explain why galaxies rotate faster than those described in the Standard Model theory. Physicists suspect other than the particles already known, galaxies also contain dark material compiled by the super particles. Therefore galaxy contains more mass can be detected and spin faster.

Are researchers at the LHCb detector that finds a flaw in that theory. Previously estimated that a particle called the Bs Meson if decay it will split into two particles known as muons. But the test was found of any decay million times, just three times a Bs Meson particles shed into two muons. If the super-particles really exist – as postulated in the theory of SUSY – then decay should occur more often.

Decay test itself is one of the “golden test” or a major test in proving the theory of super-symmetry.

Professor Val Gibson of Cambridge LHCb team said the test was to put the “theory of super-symmetry we are in doubt.”

If SUSY is not an exact explanation for dark matter, scientists must look for alternative ideas to explain inconsistencies that occur in the Standard Model. But so far, physicists are trying to find an alternative explanation – the so-called “new physics” – for anomalies in the Standard Model is still a stalemate.

“If there is new physics, so he hides so well behind the Standard Model,” explained Dr. Marc-Olivier Bettler of Cambridge, one of the team’s analysis of the test.

Meanwhile, according to Parkes, the test results did not deny the existence of super-partikel. It’s just now that they’re “running out of location to find.”

Human skull intentionally shaped like alien heads were found in a 1000 year-old tomb in Mexico, according to the researchers reported as quoted by LiveScience.

Practice changing the shape of the skull has become common practice in Central America. But the latest findings were surprising because it suggests that the practice has also spread further north.

Grave was discovered in Onavas, a small village in Mexico, in 1999. The discovery occurred when local residents were digging irrigation canals. The tomb is the tomb of the pre-Hispanic era first found in Sonora, a state which is located in northern Mexico.

Historical site called El Cementerio, containing 25 bodies. Thirteen of them had a skull that has been altered, intentionally aligned to the rear, while the other five have teeth that cut.

Than 25 the rest of the body was 17 of which were children aged between five to 16 years. There are no signs of the disease which caused their death. The researchers suspect they were killed because of the tradition of the formation of the head.

But experts from Arizona State University that perform research that do not know the reason for changing the shape of the head of the local community as it is.

“The reason why the people in El Cementerio change the shape of their skulls are not yet known,” said Cristina Garcia Moreno, one of the archaeologists involved in the study.

Some of the bodies were found still using earrings, nose rings, bracelets, and necklaces made of shells from the Gulf of California. One of the bodies were buried with a turtle shell on his chest.